


it's like destiny

by KestralWatcher



Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Stargate Fusion, Andy | Andromache of Scythia is Too Old, BAMF Nile Freeman, Crossover, Gen, does the NDA still apply when you're dead?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26774818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KestralWatcher/pseuds/KestralWatcher
Summary: Nile chokes back a laugh because she’s read the mission reports. Knows how often Earth has been on the brink of annihilation in the almost thirty years since the (re)discovery of the Stargate. “Nicky likes to think that it’s destiny, that we all end up together,” she says. She pauses to sip from the water bottle she left on the patio table before the training session. “And maybe it is. Because what are the odds that I died in Afghanistan rather than—” Out there. Speaking the words is too difficult, thanks to a combination of Marine training and literal stacks of non-disclosure agreements.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 134





	it's like destiny

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I need to finish my MCU cross-over!  
> Also me: But what if...
> 
> This really only makes sense if you're at least partially familiar with the universe of Stargate. It's set in the time-period of _The Old Guard_ , so I attempted to extrapolate what effect current American politics might have on the program.
> 
> No beta, we die like immortals.

The irony, Nile thinks, as she blinks stars out of her vision, is that she had been _furious_ to be back in Afghanistan, even though it had been her choice.

She rolls to her feet, wipes sweat from her forehead with the back of one hand, and drops into a defensive position. Andy gives Nile the barest moment to prepare before engaging again, a flurry of fists and legs.

Something about the intensity of sparring with Andy allows Nile to separate layers of thought in her brain. On one level, every blow and block and dodge are actions of instinct, and Nile knows Andy is desperate to cram decades of training into too little time. But as she becomes more confident in her abilities, Nile’s brain can’t help but be reminded of other sparring sessions, and sparring partners, and friendly matches under alien skies.

Too bad Nile can never tell Andy and Joe and Nicky that she slotted herself so easily into this four-person team because she’d had that before. For one glorious year, before General Landry’s chauvinist successor had quietly removed every female Marine from their active gate teams. She’d lasted six weeks as a lab assistant for the archaeologists before begging for an assignment outside the mountain. As much as she loved working with the brains, and helping them evaluate and interpret artifacts from dozens of planets, knowing that she no longer had a chance to visit any of those planets had _burned_.

And, well, the Gate program couldn’t snap up every intelligent, qualified female Marine. Nile had been assigned to a unit in Afghanistan within the month.

Nile blinks back up at the sky, acknowledging Andy’s gentle feedback about where she’d gone wrong this time with a wave. It must be something about the Italian sky today. The combination of sun angle and composition of the clouds and temperature—

Goranak. Where Nile had sparred dozens of times with members of the Free Jaffa, also ending up on her back multiple times a session thanks to their enhanced strength.

Minutes later, she will blame it on those stirred memories when Andy cuts through her defense like butter and sinks a fist into Nile’s stomach, prompting Nile to gasp out a Jaffa curse.

Immediately, Andy replies, “You shouldn’t talk about Ra like that.”

They stare at each other, Nile’s chest heaving for air, and Andy’s eyes almost comical in how wide they grow. Nile does some quick math in her head, and while Andy has never come out and said how old she is, it makes sense in a terrifying sort of way.

Andy recovers from the shock first. “That is not a language any of us would have taught you.”

“You were alive when they were here,” Nile says, trading a statement for a statement.

With a sigh, Andy crosses the patio to sink into a lounge chair. She pats the arm of the seat next to her. “The first real war I ever fought,” she says. Tilts her head to the side as she appraises Nile. “I always wondered why they hadn’t come back, once Earth started lobbing stuff into outer space.”

Nile chokes back a laugh because she’s read the mission reports. Knows how often Earth has been on the brink of annihilation in the almost thirty years since the (re)discovery of the Stargate. “Nicky likes to think that it’s destiny, that we all end up together,” she says. She pauses to sip from the water bottle she left on the patio table before the training session. “And maybe it is. Because what are the odds that I died in Afghanistan rather than—” _Out there_. Speaking the words is too difficult, thanks to a combination of Marine training and literal stacks of non-disclosure agreements.

“Sounds like this time you have the stories, kid,” Andy says. As if Nile can’t see the tension that thrums through Andy’s purposefully relaxed posture.

“Yeah, I think I do.” So many things Nile say first, but she settles for what’s old news for her, but apparently might be kind of a big deal for Andy. If she fought the enemy that Nile was too late for, her own time in service taken up with petty intergalactic politics and figuring out what to do about the space vampires in Pegasus. (And if Nile is lucky she didn’t die somewhere else out in the Milky Way, she’s doubly fortunate that she passed over the opportunity for a stint on Atlantis, not willing to give up weekly phone calls with her mother and brother.)

“So, Ra’s been dead since 1996. Actually, most of the Goa’uld are dead, and the Jaffa aren’t enslaved anymore…”


End file.
